Wife and I will be staying on Spencer St. as well! We'll be arriving on the 16th and leaving on the 22nd. If we decide to bring our sticks I will try to get in touch with you guys. I'm a 4.5 while my wife is a 4.0. I'd love to give grass a try!

I will arrive there on Monday the 15th.. but will probably spend the day sleeping since I could only get red eye flight (hate that so much)

anyway my schedule's pretty relaxed... I will be there for the whole two weeks just chilling... I may go to Sydney for a day or two the second week, but other than that, just planning to watch as many matches as I can

burosky if you don't mind to hit with a 3-3.5 I'm up for a game or two.. if you don't think it would be fun, it's also fine.. I won't be offended

I will arrive there on Monday the 15th.. but will probably spend the day sleeping since I could only get red eye flight (hate that so much)

anyway my schedule's pretty relaxed... I will be there for the whole two weeks just chilling... I may go to Sydney for a day or two the second week, but other than that, just planning to watch as many matches as I can

burosky if you don't mind to hit with a 3-3.5 I'm up for a game or two.. if you don't think it would be fun, it's also fine.. I won't be offended

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I don't know about your experience but at the Atlantis Hotel the internet connection sucked big time. It was so bad that all I used it for was check e-mail. It is too late now. We flew back last Sunday. If it wasn't too expensive I'd do it again. This was my first experience at a Grand Slam. I think this raised my expectations quite high. We are planning to go to the US Open next.

men's was.. wow... no words can be used to describe it.. I used to complain about the excessive ball bouncing and use of towels.. but I'm kinda glad now since it gave me time to breath between points.. definitely breath taking match..

match finished 2 AM, got back home at 3 AM, slept at 430 AM, and had to catch a plane by 10 AM... crazy...

also managed to snatch good seats for federer-tomic and nadal-berdych match just hours before the matches

a bit of advice.... scalping was non existent there, so whenever people had conflicts, they will return the tickets to ticketek... so sometimes even though the event was sold out, some tickets will pop out closer to the match..

I would have done the same thing except my old body just can't take it. It's like going to a great buffet with tons of food prepared by chefs to choose from. You want to get a taste of everything and perhaps want to go back for more for your favorites but your stomach just gets too full. It was too much tennis if there is such a thing.

Just needed to know if anybody from Melbourne could help with this, would staying somewhere along Howard Street be a good idea if attending the Aussie Open?

I read that its about at least a 20min walk to the Melbourne CBD and a 5 minute walk to the nearest tram station so not sure if its feasible or not.

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It is a little further away but certainly feasible. We stayed at Atlantis which is close to the corner of La Trobe and Spencer St. We could have walked all the way to Rod Laver Arena but with the free tram ride there's no sense walking it. Howard is quite far from Rod Laver. If you walked it you'd probably be spent by the time you get there. Tram would be your best bet. You can just do a Google map search and you will see what I mean.

hi guys, i'll be heading to the 2013 Aussie Open, and i'm just about to drop the cash on the quarters day session. is roger more likely to play in the day or the night? (assuming he'll get to the quarters.)

as much as i'd love to live in melbourne park for 2 weeks as you did, i only have 2 days. any advice which are the best 2 days to go, apart from the semis and finals, to get the most tennis, and still get to see roger in action?

hmmm single sessions also do not seem to be on sale.
"Event not on-sale to the general public."

mykoh do you have Australian Open membership? if not I think you won't be able to buy single tickets yet... I think sale for general public will start around sept/oct... currently it's now limited to members only...

other than semis than finals.. I think getting the quarters will be worthwhile.. the players play alternate days, so if you get 2 straight days most probably you'll get Fed in one of the days... last year fed and nadal plays on the same day, djoko and murray on the other..

last year was a surprise, that fed plays on the first round on Monday, at Hisense.. that hasn't happened in a while.. he always play in Rod Laver..

my suggestion is to look at last year's schedule, study it for a bit and you'll get an idea of how they schedule the players..

some things I noticed though... Hisense plan aren't really worth it.. might as well get ground tickets and go to Margaret Court arena.. and Australian players get first priority during evening sessions.. Tomic and Hewitt play the evening sessions a LOT.. no offense to the Australians, but I was kinda glad when both of them got eliminated..

as much as i'd love to live in melbourne park for 2 weeks as you did, i only have 2 days. any advice which are the best 2 days to go, apart from the semis and finals, to get the most tennis, and still get to see roger in action?

hmmm single sessions also do not seem to be on sale.
"Event not on-sale to the general public."

yeah the quarters look really good. the package only allows me to choose between the day or night sessions, but the day gets me 2 women's singles and 1 men's singles over 2 days (22-23 Jan). also studied the 2012 schedule of play and fed played delpo in the first day session. does that mean he'll play night this time round?

why i'm hesitating is cos even if i drop the cash on the quarters, i'm not guaranteed of watching roger play and feels like a gamble (an expensive one) to me. :/

thanks for answering my questions, i'm just really really excited.

EDIT: i tried buying package tickets yesterday just to see what seats i'd get and everything was ok. i didn't complete the transaction cos i was still undecided. i'm trying it now and it doesn't work!

I found a trick that might be useful for you.... scalping for tickets for Aussie Open is illegal, so you won't see scalpers selling tickets outside the park (a very common thing in US sporting events)

when people can't go to the matches, they will return the tickets to Ticketek... this year I got to watch Federed play Tomic, a sold out event from the 7th row... I bought the ticket literally 2 hours before the match start..

so you might want to try that too... just wait for the schedule to come out, then a couple of hours before Fed plays... just keep checking Ticketek to see if there are any spots open...

yeah the quarters look really good. the package only allows me to choose between the day or night sessions, but the day gets me 2 women's singles and 1 men's singles over 2 days (22-23 Jan). also studied the 2012 schedule of play and fed played delpo in the first day session. does that mean he'll play night this time round?

why i'm hesitating is cos even if i drop the cash on the quarters, i'm not guaranteed of watching roger play and feels like a gamble (an expensive one) to me. :/

okay the package tickets are up for sale again! seats aren't as good as the ones that were offered a while back (upper section 16) now the system has offered me section 37 and 40 (on the 2nd day) row BB. how is it from that position? should i go for it?

mykoh, the longer you wait, the worse the seats you will get... I'd say just jump on it ASAP.. you can always return the tickets later to Ticketek if the events are sold out... all Rod Laver events quarters and above will 99% guaranteed to be sold out...

don't worry too much about the seats... friendly suggestion though, and it can also just be my personal preference...

get baseline tickets!!!! sitting at sideline your viewing angle is very limited.. there's a reason why TV shows the matches in that direction

i had awesome seats the first time i tried getting tickets (section 16). but i hesitated and they were gone. did my best to get baseline seats but their system was only able to put me there. so i guess my current seats will have to do.

I remember last year during Nishikori vs Tsonga match... I couldn't even stay for more than 2 sets watching on the court.. it was sooo hot!! most people (including me) have to go back in and out of the court to take turns cooling off in the hallways..

Another question just came to mind, is re-entry allowed to Melbourne Park for e.g. i have a grounds pass/Hisense ticket i'm there at the start of the day than decide to leave Melbourne Park to go eat or do some exploring am i allowed to re-enter again later in the day?

..... never did the in and out thing when I was there last year but if I remember right you also have to get yourself stamped. I was there the first week last year and didn't think the temperature was that hot. I survived not having a hat or sunglasses. There were a couple of days where the temps got to the high 90s but overall it was nice. If it didn't make a big dent in my wallet I'd go back in a heartbeat.

The hotel we stayed at last year had the daily schedule printed out and available at the lobby. It wasn't even a high end hotel. It was the Atlantis (Best Western). I bet most if not all the hotels in the CBD area would have the schedule printed out and available at the lobby as well.